About us

Campus Crops is a student run urban gardening initiative at McGill University's downtown campus. We want to grow food on campus, by students, for students. We have been running garden behind the School of Environment building at 3534 University since 2007. In 2009 we started a terrace garden behind the James Administration building. We're really excited to keep improving these two spaces, and need lots of helping hands for the summer ahead! Get in touch and get gardening!

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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

NOTICE
Unfortunately, due to renovations happening in the garden, we have to postpone the garden opening until later in May. Stay tuned for our bed-making and planting date(s)! We will also start working on our container garden soon!

The renovations implied digging trenches and filling them with gravel, as you can see in the pictures below. All the topsoil (and even more) was removed from the garden and will be replaced with better soil, because (we still can't find any good reason for this, sustainability-wise). Earth was also excavated outside the garden, and retaining walls will be installed around the garden.

Here are some pictures of the renovations:

McGill Grounds Services started the renovations without asking or informing us, so we left them a message. It's been a renewed surprise every day work was done at the garden, as it took us a few email exchanges before being informed of the full extent of the renovations. Hence the WTF.

Following the flood, people at McGill Grounds got worried about water infiltration in the basement of the Birks building (upper right) and the MSE building (upper left, can barely see it). They decided to install a french drain along both buildings and the paved area between them (upper center), which happens to be exactly where our garden is.

Here's the garden. You can see, starting from the upper center and snaking down to the Birks building on the right, where the french drain is going to be installed (the grey stuff, which is gravel and geotextile). We've been told the area would not be covered by earth, so this is a big loss of space for us (the trench for the drain is 18-24 inches wide). The gravel and geotextile near the bottom and on the left will be used to install a retaining wall along the garden edge, in order to direct any running water toward the street through the driveway (upper left). Water conservation, anyone?

It is time! Campus Crops will be opening for the season on April
3rd. We have a lot of clean up to do because of the flood last January. We will also shape our gardening beds, and amend the soil (add compost). Anyone interested in getting involved is invited to come to any
(or all!) of thefour weekly gardening sessions happening throughout
April (4 per week during 4 weeks, basically):

Monday 5-7pmWednesday 5-7pmFriday 5-7pmSaturday 1-5pm

The garden is
located behind the McGill School of Environment @ 3534 University St.

This is weather permitting. In other words, if it's rainy, or really cold, and the soil is either very wet or frozen, don't bother showing up or ask via email beforehand; it is very likely we will not be able to work on those days.

If you want to learn more, there are also weekly meetings held on
Tuesday @ 5:30pm in Burnside 305.
Hope to see you there!

Find the Facebook event here. We'll try to update the event well enough in advance to indicate if the weather allows us to work in the garden.